Lawsuit seeks $800 million over man's Northland Mall death

5:16 PM,
Feb. 26, 2014

McKenzie Cochran is shown in an undated photo.

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The family of a Ferndale man who died following a scuffle with security guards at a Southfield mall is seeking $800 million in a wrongful death lawsuit.

The lawsuit alleges the unidentified guards arrested McKenzie Cochran because of his race, but the Cochran family's attorney, Gerald Thurswell of Southfield, told a reporter the root of the case is the actions of the guards and the alleged negligence of the mall ownership and the security firm that employed the guards. Cochran, 25, was black, and it appears at least some of the six guards involved in the altercation were white.